1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machines for making shaved ice confectioneries and in particular to an electric motor driven compact portable shaved ice machine that is suitable for home use.
2. Prior Art
Shaved ice particles have long been used in the manufacture of deserts and confectioneries. Commonly, such shavings are collected in a holder and a syrup of a desired flavor, or combination of flavors is poured over the shaved ice to provide sweetening to a desired taste.
In the past, a great many devices have been proposed to provide the desired ice chips or ice shavings. Hand held and motor operated devices have been used for many years for providing such ice chips or shavings. Such devices generally include a holder for a knife blade that is drawn across a large block of ice or in some instances, larger, bulkier, devices have been used to crush the larger blocks of ice. More recently, machines have been developed that allow a block of ice to be held in a fixed position while automatically operated cutter blades are pulled across a block surface to produce ice shavings. The ice shavings are then collected and are thereafter scooped into a container and receive a sweet syrup poured thereover.
Blocks of ice are not always available, nor are such practical for use in a portable ice shaving machine suitable for in home use like that of the invention. As a result, there is a need for a machine to make ice chips or shavings from smaller cubes such as are commonly produced by common household refrigerators and freezers. The present invention provides such a portable ice shaving machine that is light in weight and will produce uniform ice shavings from ice cubes that has a snow like consistency and is desirable for receiving a flavored sweet syrup poured thereover as a desert item.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,992,783, 2,565,226, 2,684,207 and 2,655,318, show machines that are useful for shaving cubes of ice, and an earlier patent issued to the present inventor, U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,809, shows an ice cube shaving machine and syrup dispensing arrangement for use in a store or snow cone stand type operation. Like the '809 patent, the present machine provides a hopper for receiving ice cubes placed therein and for urging each cube, in turn, against a turning blade assembly that is rotated by an electric motor, the turning blade shaving ice from a cube surface to form ice shavings with a snow like consistence. Additional to the differences in the housing, electric drive motor and ring shaped blade between the '809 patent and the present invention, the present invention provides a unique combination hopper, chute and dispenser chute with blade scraper assembly for directing the ice shavings into a cup or vessel therebelow.